U.s. Narrows N-dump Sites To 3

May 29, 1986

The Associated Press — WASHINGTON -- The Reagan administration on Wednesday narrowed from five to three the prospective sites for the first nuclear waste repository, while reportedly concluding there was no need for a second facility.

The White House said that President Reagan had selected sites in Nevada, Texas and Washington as possible locations of the waste site. At the same time, sites in Utah and Mississippi were eliminated.

Roger Carroll, an aide to Rep. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., said Gregg had been told by Energy Department officials that they would announce later Wednesday they were forgoing all action on selection of a second site ``basically because of a lack of need.``

Abandonment of work on a second site, however, will require congressional approval; Congress never authorized a second site but did require planning for one.

Reagan selected Yucca Mountain, Nev.; Deaf Smith County, Texas; and Hanford, Wash., as sites for the first nuclear waste repository.

By law, the Energy Department will study the three sites and recommend to the president in 1994 which one should be selected.

Results of the intensive studies will determine which site is selected as the underground repository for up to 70,000 metric tons of spent fuel. The repository is planned to be as low as 4,000 feet underground and to guard wastes from disturbance for 10,000 years.

Reports of the Energy Department`s decision to eliminate a second nuclear waste storage facility were sure to be welcomed in several quarters.

Twelve sites in seven states were being considered for the second waste repository, and local opposition has arisen in each case. The seven states are Georgia, Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Virginia and Wisconsin.

A department official, Ben Rusche, told Rep. Gerry Sikorski, D-Minn., he would recommend that work on the second site be halted ``if there was progress on the first site, and if they get what they want from Congress on (a temporary waste storage depot),`` according to an account of the conversation last week provided Tuesday by Sikorski`s aide, Ted Janas.

Three years ago, Congress required the department to plan for two deep underground shafts to store highly radioactive waste from nuclear power reactors and weapons production for 10,000 years. Congress would have to approve a suspension of work on the second site.

The 1982 law projected eventual nuclear waste at more than 100,000 metric tons, of which 43,000 tons would be on hand in the year 2000. Since then, the president has decided that about 10,000 metric tons of weapons waste should be included. A metric ton is 2,205 pounds.

The law directed that the first repository be located in the west but limited its planned capacity to 70,000 metric tons in what lawmakers said was an unspoken understanding that the state selected would not carry the entire burden.

Janas said Sikorski believes ``the technical need for (a second burial site) has diminished and it would be a waste of money.``

The first repository is to open in 1998, but that date is widely seen in Congress as too optimistic.